Dennis Goedegebuure/CC BY-ND 2.0
It’s the most iconic American soup – Campbell’s Tomato. It’s also a product very difficult to put in a can without a liner using Bisphenol A (BPA), as the acidity of tomatoes is extraordinarily good at breaking down packaging.
Yet Campbell’s Soup Company, under pressure from parental and health advocacy groups, announced it will begin to phase-out liners that use BPA, though no exact timeline was given. Campbell’s has been under increased consumer scrutiny since levels of BPA were noted in soups marketed specifically to children. A study last year found families that stopped eating canned and packaged foods showed a marked drop in the BPA levels in their bodies after just a few days.
Last month at a Campbell’s shareholder meeting Campbell’s CFO Craig Owens reported that the shift to BPA-free cans had already begun, reports the Healthy Child Healthy World organization, and Owens further said moving to different liners would not impose a big cost on the company.
Campbell’s has already started using BPA-free liners in “some” of its soups – no mention of which ones.
Campbell’s announcement represents a huge shift in the canned foods industry, as the phasing out of BPA-liners has been slow to be adopted by the mainstream, with ‘natural’ food companies such as Eden Organic and a few others making much more of an effort to go BPA-free.
Eden, as others, have not yet found a liner that will work with their products containing tomatoes.
Bisphenol A has been indicated in cancer, and even behavioral problems.
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